Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Okay, get prepared for a major tear-jerker with this one. I first learned about this Australian couple on Oprah the other day, so some of you have probably seen a clip of this video already. For those of you who haven't, the background goes something like this. The father, Kristian, has cancer. The doctors told him he couldn't work, so the Mom, Rachel, went back to work and supports Kristian and their 2 sons by herself. For Rachel's birthday, Kristian created this video as a love letter to his wife, as a token of his appreciation for all she has done. On a side note, Rachel is from New Zealand, so the beginning of the video begins with a personal message from the Prime Minister, and then in the middle a message from Hugh Jackman, an Australian actor. So cool!!

It seriously makes me want to cry every time. It's so beautiful, and so romantic. I can only imagine what it must have felt like to watch this video love letter from your best friend. Hope you all enjoy "Rachel's birthday video"...

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

I am absolutely in love with my new necklace. It's incredibly long, and made up of beautiful granite colored beads with a few diamond accent beads. It's a custom piece from the fabulous jewelry company, Honesty, which you can see here. The designer, Nicole Jones, is the wife of Atlanta Braves baseball player Andruw Jones, and is absolutely adorable. She came and did a jewelry show at my aunt's Christmas party over the holidays, and was just so adorable to hang out with. She allowed me to pick the beads I wanted and modify one of her signature necklaces just a little bit! It's so very me, and I just adore it!! Can't wait to sport my new bling in my oh-so-glamourous-teacher life. Hey, a girl can dream, huh?

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Back to your regularly scheduled programming here at the Kizziah Blog! This week's YouTube Tuesday is brought to you by my oh so lovely Spanish II students who manage to get their very gullible teacher off-task far too easily. Here is there Tuesday lesson?!?!? I know, I know! But it certainly won't be the last time that that the "If someone walked in my classroom right now, I'd probably be fired" thought goes through my head. Nonetheless, this is truly something. I am not sure if I am supposed to laugh, or feel some sort of sympathy for him, but I guarantee you'll spend the next 30 minutes looking for other videos by this star in the making (or is that just me???). Here is "Firework" for you viewing pleasure...

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

So it's done! Complete! Terminado! Hallelujah! My gently used brand new china hutch is in the house, painted, stocked with goodies, and I. Am. So. Relieved... and so in love. This was probably my most ambitious undertaking to date, which was only compounded by the fact that I absolutely, positively, HAD to have it complete before Christmas!! (sorry for the late posting, I've been a little lazy) This was a Craig's List find, and it definitely started a little rough...

Ugly oak, broken glass, and a busted back....but it was a GREAT deal, and my thrifty self knew it could be transformed. I guess beauty really is in the eye of the beholder :)

After A LOT of sanding, priming, and about 10 cans of spray paint, she's a new woman!

I painted the inside of the cabinets a beautiful shade of blue to highlight all of my white dishes. I also removed the side glass doors and replaced it with chicken wire that was spray painted oil rubbed bronze along with the original hardware. Then with some light distressing and some glaze, she took on a whole new life.

So what do you all think? I am so happy to have a place to store all of my beautiful wedding presents! Here is one last view in the now completed (well, minus the horrendous light fixture) dining room!

Close-up of the tablescape...

And this little cutie hiding in the corner. Not really sure what I'm going to do with her, but I luhv her!!

I'll share more on the updated curtains soon! Have a fabulous hump day!

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

I intrrupt your regularly scheduled blog post of Youtube Tuesday because I have absolutely nothing worthy of a blog post to share I wanted to share publicly my goals for 2011. Still weird to type that. 2011, 2011, 2011, 2011. It will only take me 11.5 months and several hundred voided checks later to get the year correct, and then it will be 2012. Whoa. Even weirder. I digress.

I actually really did want to write out my goals for the year. I have tried the typical New Year's Resolution more times than I can actually count, only to tire of the pressure, forget about them, or realize that I never really cared about a "resolution" to begin with. So this year, I hope to just set realistic goals for the betterment of my life, and share them with you all for some accountability :) Are you tired of my lists yet?!?! I am SOOOO Type A, I just can't help myself. I have lists floating around every room of the house. Anyway, here goes...

{1} Start Running. I want to be able to run to stay in shape, but also come to that place where I actually enjoy the activity. I always watch in awe at the women I see running. They must have so much time to think or not thing, whichever is more relaxing. So my goal is to run a 5k by the end of the year, or at least be able too, and then we'll see what happens.

{2} Drink 64 ounces of water each day. Anyone who knows me well, knows this will be QUITE the challenge.

{3} Only order water when I'm out to dinner. Primarily to cut back on the budget and on soft drink intake, but also to aide in goal #2.

{4} Read through the Bible in one year. I am already behind on the schedule, but that's why there's a whole year right?!?! Or atleast I am telling myself that. Seriously, though, I too often forget about the not so "popular" (for lack of a better word) parts of the Bible that really help paint the whole picture of just how great God's plan has been, is, and always will be.

{5} Fold the clean laundry within 1 hour of its completion in the dryer. I have developed a bad habit of leaving them in the dryer, because I already did all the work/ they are clean/ I'm lazy. The hubs and I both despise the putting away of the laundry, but I have decided that if I start the load, I will see it through to completion. Sounds so deep, huh?? Not sure if this will result in more or less laundry actually getting done :)

{6} Learn to like my hair. This has been a life-long battle for me. I wish I could say "Love" but I think that might be pushing it a little. So for now, I want to like my hair, learn to deal with its "do whatever it wants too attitude" (yes it has attitude), and accept that I just don't have super model hair like my adorable twin sissy. I like to think of it as eccentric!!

{7} Excercise 3 times a week or more. Kinda goes along with #1, but it doesn't always have to be running.

{8} Smile and Kiss the hubs when he comes home from work every day. Even if its been one of those never ending horror story kind of days, or one of those I can't believe I am picking up all YOUR crap kind of days, or I really don't feel like talking kind of days...even still I will put on my big girl panties and greet my wonderful man with a smile and a kiss.

{9} Play with Macy more. Well play might be an exxageration as she simply doesn't like to move very much, but at least I could give her a little more attention in between her snoring fests.

{10} Organize the office/junk hole/ crafting area/ tractor graveyard!!! I have plans, but gotta get on it!!

So what are your goals for the new year?? Do you think I am a crazy woman yet??

Monday, January 3, 2011

Hello long lost friends! I promise I didn't fall off the face of the planet, just disappeared to a little place I lovingly refer to as Gainesvegas (aka my home town) for the Holidays. After nearly 2 weeks of Grizwald style family bonding, the hubs and I are back to our wonderfully boring quiet home gearing up for another fun-filled work week. After today's first Monday back to work, I was definitely harshly reminded of why my body so prefers the 10 am wake-up call to the 5 am torture call :)

With all that being said, I wanted to give you all a little summary of the shenanigans that occurred in my estrogen overloaded family during the Holidays (There are 10 girls, more if you include the dogs, and only 3 males). So without further ado, I bring you the top 10 funniest moments from the 2010 Holidays...

{1} Following in our Christmas Eve tradition, I frolicked upstairs to put on my matching pajama outfit (yes, we still get matching pajamas every year) only to catch a brief glimpse in the mirror and discover that my pajama top had quite the unsightly rip stretching from armpit to belly button. Needless to say, "Santa's Elf" was not G-rated!! Thankfully great minds think a like, and so after about 10 minutes of hysterically laughing, I simply went out to my car to pull out the identical pair opened from my grandmother only hours before :)

{2} My adorable cousin, Peaches, and her friend discovered a hysterical Youtube video that they insisted on quoting every other second for the entire extent of my stay at home. The video is not exactly G-rated, so watch at your will....but if you so choose, please picture 2 teenagers parading around the house singing, "I aint got no candies for you, no cookies for you!"

{3} My husband dancing like a crazy person to Kesha's "tik tok" on the WII dance game at our neighbor's house that made me almost pee my pants. I seriously didn't think those moves were humanly possible, nor do I think that the makers of "You Can Dance 2" intended for a grown man to require an oxygen mask and a sweat rag upon completion of one level!

{4} My twin sister retelling my whole family the stories of our mom bribing us to go to her step-aerobics classes by feeding us double cheeseburgers and milkshakes in the back of the room while the rest of the 80's spandex-clad women "traveled"and "squatted"! It was absolutely hilarious complete with a remarkable imitation that would have brought out the Jane Fonda in all of us!!

{5} Anyone who knows my grandfather has most certainly been introduced to his wide array of musical "skills" including but not limited to the air horn, the air trombone, the thumb drum, and my most favorite, the whistle. You also must know that my grandfather does not easily back down from a challenge, thus brought on the Whistle War at the dinner table on Christmas Eve with my youngest sister. It was quite possibly the most scarring annoying experience of my life. We'll call it a tie since 99% of the family forced it to end before a real winner could be declared.

{6} I was feeling so proud of all my massive amounts of Christmas shopping completed, wrapped beautifully, and delivered to Gainesville, only for my sister's fiance to open up his ski clothes from me and discover that they were sized Youth Large instead of Men's Large. The look on his face was absolutely priceless as he held up what could have been capri pants if he could have fit his leg into it. Better yet, I bought him a child's size beanie as well which wouldn't even fit my little cousin. Total Embarrasment!!

{7} My baby cousin, Georgia, professing her love of Kate Gosselin to me in the Car. Here's how the conversation went....

Georgia: I Love Kate Gosselin!!

Me: You do? That's interesting.

Georgia: Yes, I simply do not know what I would do if I got to meet her. I would be completely star-stuck Tay Tay! Like I might pass out.

Me: (Trying hard not to laugh) Well Georgie, I guess you would just tell her why you like her so much.

Georgia: Where would I even start? She's a great mother, she's so beautiful, I love her show, in fact I can name all of her kids in their birth order! Kara, Maddie..... (and the list went on and on)

Me: hysterically laughing and left wondering why in the world a 10 year old would know who Kate Gosselin is, let alone be sooooo in love with her.

{8} My aunt yelling my sisters name in a crazy British/Old lady voice every time she saw her or her name was mentioned. I still have nightmares of her yelling "AAAAAANNNNNNIIIIIIIEEEEE"

{9} My twin sister, after a loooong evening, deciding that every description she gave for the rest of the night had to have 2 adjectives beginning with the same letter. Some of my favorites being, "bushy and boring" and "frisky and fabulous"!

{10} My 90 year old great-grandmother lifting my sister's shake weight over her head as my sister yell's , "C'mon Grahm, take it home with the tricep!!" You can't possibly imagine what the smallest, most frail and precious woman in the whole world looks like holding a provocatively shaped dumbbell over her head while shaking it and laughing hysterical. Pure comedy at its finest!!

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas! I'll be back with more projects and "that's what he said" this week!